Servant of Death cover art

Servant of Death

Bradecote and Catchpoll

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Servant of Death

By: Sarah Hawkswood
Narrated by: Matt Addis
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About this listen

The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him?

The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the claustrophobic walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....

©2014 Sarah Hawkswood (P)2017 Isis Publishing Ltd Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Fiction

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All stars
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A good balance of character and plot with some well crafted descriptions. Held my attention without being riveting or revealing, players and the historical aspects were predictable and as such comfortable for a fan of the genre, but also disappointing in being so.

Solid, well narrated.

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really enjoyed this book, the reader was excellent. looking forward to the next book i

brilliant

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I really enjoyed the story and the narration. Matt Addis does a first rate job and I look forward to the next book.

Really enjoyable

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If you've run out of Cadfael, you'll get a similar medieval murder mystery fix here. The same setting, the same detailed description of people, but things aren't quite so cozy here; we don't have Cadfael's knowing and understanding eye watching everything.

The story is a little overwhelming at first, as a great number of characters are introduced in quick succession. Might actually be better to read on paper to see all the names spelled out, although Matt Addis does an excellent job with the narration. Once the cast was introduced, however, it was quite enjoyable, though there are some signs of an inexperienced author, like spelling out what the characters think and feel even when it's unnecessary, pacing action too slowly, and not making as much of the mystery and character dynamics as she could. The mystery was a little bit disappointing, lacking the "aha!"-moment that you want from a crime novel like this, though that might just have been me.

I did like the dynamic between the two lawmen, with the young, inexperienced one being in charge and the old veteran being forced to defer to him, and both men resenting the other for his advantage. I do intend to check out at least one more book in this series to see if Hawkswood improves on the technical side, and I hope to see Bradecote and Catchpoll learn to respect each other and work together in future installments.

EDIT: Having listened to the ninth book in the series now, I begin to think Hawkswood's editor is not doing their job. The pacing is still all wrong because of the omnicient narrator, and there's obvious dramatic beats that just never happen. The setting is great and the characters are likeable, but the delivery of the story is clunky.

Alright for a first effort

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Having loved Cadfael by Ellis Peters I was a little wary of starting this series about Bradecote and Catchpoll but picked up 1 later in the series when it was on an offer which I loved… so promptly bought extra credits so I could go to the beginning of the series.
In this book we meet the newly appointed temporary undersheriff of Worcester and the veteran Serjeant Catchpoll as they try to solve their first case together.
The author Sarah Hawkswood sets the scene so well that the medieval setting starts to feel as natural as our lives today as we become immersed in time, place, and culture.
All characters are fully fleshed and the mystery to be solved well written and logically explained.
The narrator (Matt Addis) is fast becoming a new favourite.

And yes I am ready to continue reading this series.

Brilliant series

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I can to this because I like the reader and was hoping for a cadfael replacement. I found that having this book read the names were not memorable either in the pace they came in or the descriptions. Do I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out who people were and what was happening.

Pretty good

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This is the first book in the series and it rather shows. It’s not as slick as the later books and there’s a bit of head hopping goes on but all in all I enjoyed it. Performance is excellent.

First book in series

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I picked this because of some excellent reviews and an obvious similarity to Ellis Peters/Cadfael. Having got to the end, I think that, overall, it was a good story, but it took me a very long time to get into it. I must have restarted the book at least three times, giving up each time because of the slow start to this story, although I did like the voice characterisations of the Narrator a lot.

I'm glad that I persisted as turns out to be a good yarn, but it definitely took effort and commitment to get to the end. I listen almost exclusively in the car, whilst driving, and I like stuff that has a little bit of pace and keeps me interested. I think this needed too much effort in the listening to get into, and I don't have that while driving.

I'd like to say I'd try this author again, but I'll definitely leave it a while before I do...

I found it difficult to get into...

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I enjoyed this historical story, well read and well written, so much historical interest and well researched

A good story

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The story was interesting enough and easy to follow with a character pot that wasn’t too large to baffle us. Each of the main characters were well drawn enough to be individuals but not enough to challenge their credibility (the historical aspects being on the light side).

This is historical crime fiction which has a tinge of romance and is certainly more about entertainment than historical fact. Which it does perfectly well.

The narrator was a sound choice.

In the fine tradition of light historical crime

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